Selected Official Documents of the South African Republic and Great Britain | Page 5

the printer and publisher remain responsible for all the documents which contain defamation, insult, or attacks against any one's character.
OF THE PROTECTION AND DEFENCE OF THE STATE.
ARTICLE 20.--The people shall only appoint as representatives in the Volksraad those who are members of a Protestant Church.
ARTICLE 21.--The people desire the growth, prosperity, and welfare of the State, and with this view provision for suitable school teachers.
ARTICLE 22.--Providing also that in time of peace precautionary measures are taken to enable the State to wage or withstand a war.
ARTICLE 23.--In case of a hostile attack from outside, everyone, without distinction, shall be held bound to lend his assistance on the promulgation of martial law.
ARTICLE 24.--No treaty or alliance with foreign powers or peoples may be ratified until the Volksraad has expressed its feelings upon the same, the treaty requiring to be ratified and passed or else cancelled according to the judgment of the Volksraad, with exception of those treaties which the Government is empowered by law or Volksraad resolution to make.
ARTICLE 25.--In case of threatening danger for the State or in time of war, the right of judging as to whether such treaty or alliance is advisable or not is left to the Commandant-General advised by the Military Council, if the commandos are in the field, and there is no time to consult the Executive Council.
OF THE VOLKSRAAD, THE HIGHEST AUTHORITY, OR THE LEGISLATIVE POWER.
ARTICLE 26.--The Volksraad shall be the highest authority of the country, and the legislative power.
ARTICLE 27.--No civil servants are to be representatives of the people.
ARTICLE 28.--The Volksraad shall consist of at least twelve members, who must possess the following qualifications:--
They must have attained the age of thirty years, and be born in the Republic, or have for fifteen consecutive years been burghers entitled to vote, be members of a Protestant Church, reside, and possess immovable property, in the Republic. No persons of notoriously bad character, or who have had a dishonouring sentence pronounced against them, and no uncertified or unrehabilitated insolvents shall be eligible. They may not be related to each other in the relationship of father and son or stepson. No coloured persons or bastards shall be admitted into our Assemblies. In like manner no military officer or official of the State, who draws a fixed annual or monthly salary, shall be eligible as member of the Volksraad.
ARTICLE 29.--The members of the Volksraad are elected by a majority of votes from among the electors of each district. No one shall be considered as elected who has not obtained at least sixty votes. Every one who is born in the country and has attained the age of twenty-one years, or has become naturalized, shall be a burgher qualified to vote. The members of the Volksraad are elected for the period of four years.
ARTICLE 30.--No one shall be eligible who has not received a requisition signed by at least twenty-five voters. The voters in one district are at liberty to vote for a candidate living in another district. (That is to say, they may be represented by a candidate who resides in a district other than that in which the voters reside.)
ARTICLE 31.--Every enfranchised burgher is allowed, if he wishes, to bring accusations against the President or members of the Executive Council for contravention of their duties or official crimes, and send those accusations to the President of the Volksraad, under the address; "To the Hon. President of the Volksraad," who then shall act according to his judgment of the affair.
ARTICLE 32.--The election of members for the Volksraad shall take place in the month of January or February, or in exceptional cases upon such times as shall be fixed. For each district two members shall be chosen, except the districts Pretoria, Potchefstrom, Rustenberg, Lydenburg and Vryheid, for which three members shall be elected. Elective districts on the Gold-fields shall each elect one member. At the expiration of the second year it shall be decided by lot which half of the members shall go out; the other half shall vacate their seats at the end of the fourth year, and so on. New members of the Volksraad shall be chosen from the districts whose members fall out. Retiring members are re-eligible.
ARTICLE 33.--The Volksraad appoints, outside its members, a Secretary, to be proposed by the Executive Council.
ARTICLE 34.--A Volksraad member who absents himself, and does not comply with the notice to attend, incurs a penalty of Rds. 75.
ARTICLE 35.--The reasons for a Volksraad member's non-appearance are:--
(1) Indisposition and bodily infirmity, to be proved by the member chosen or summoned, by a signed declaration of the Landrost, Commandant, or Field-Cornet of his division.
(2) Such unforeseen circumstances, being actually proved, as make it impossible for him to be present, or to remain there.
ARTICLE 36.--All objections, excuses, and notices mentioned in Articles 34 and 35